Solo Beatles single by single thread

And it's lesser for it!

1965/1966 the man was on another planet of genius.

 

.....and Dylan makes a great point about McCartney......that he still comes up with original, compelling melodies.....i agree.....with the occasional exception

 

Having been in the music biz for over 50 years that would seem hard to maintain but somehow he keeps on doing it.

 

Agreed. Many don't care for his later stuff because of his voice, or the production, or the mastering....but......I would submit that his last few solo albums, have a great, inventive, un-self-conscious music-making quality to them that we haven't really seen since the early 70s.
That's not dismissing everything in the middle years......but, I think, in doing all those live shows since 2002 or whenever, something clicked in the man to where he's really not trying to please---as much, he's still a people-pleaser---but he's a lot less self-conscious about making a mistake on stage or being cool or relevant in the studio----he's just letting things flow.

Even though my first time seeing him live in 1993 is still the greatest concert experience of my life-----I acknowledge back then, in 1993, there was a tension, a self-conscious need to be relevant and make a big showing on the charts----not making a mistake. Now---though I know he's still dying for a number 1 in any fashion----he's a lot less consumed by it----all for the better! That's my sense anyway. Now if he could just let go of the fact that the average concert-goer wants to hear the hits and do a show chock-full of heretofore unperformed live material............

 

I never really bonded with "Fine Line". I don't hate it but I think it's one of his lesser singles.

 

"Fine Line" was my first introduction to McCartney since "Take It Away". He just fell off my radar after the early 80s. But wow - did he ever get my attention with "Chaos". I agree that the first single is not indicative of the rest of the album, but along with "Promise To You Girl" a bit more energy is just the right touch to contrast with some of his most introspective songs ever. "Chaos" ranks up there with "Ram" and BOTR for me, with the next couple of albums close behind. A truly amazing late period renaissance.

 

Paul McCartney - "Jenny Wren" (2005)


B-side: Summer of '59 (7'' only), I Want You to Fly, This Loving Game (CD only)
Released: November 21, 2005
Charts: #22 (UK)

"Jenny Wren" was written in Los Angeles, and is about a character of the same name from Charles Dickens' novel Our Mutual Friend. It also refers to a bird known as the wren, which is reported to be McCartney's favourite. McCartney wrote the tune in the same sort of finger picking style found in "Blackbird", "Mother Nature's Son" (The Beatles) and "Calico Skies" (Flaming Pie). The song earned a nomination for the 2007 Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance category.

The solo is played on an Armenian woodwind instrument, called duduk — a first in pop music history — played by Venezuelan-born world winds specialist and multi-instrumentalist Pedro Eustache. The guitar is tuned down a whole step for the song, providing a unique sound that reflects McCartney's earlier works.

 

Yearning for the days of my salamander and dustbin lid are you?

 

Great album track... strange pick for a single.

 

Why? Paul McCartney was past the era of hit singles anyway. Since it was a clear sequel to Blackbird - one of Paul's best known songs - and a good tune in its own right, Jenny Wren made perfect sense as a single.

 

Love the song.... But it is slow paced with a strange woodwind instrument... and sung in Paul's old man voice.

 

I didn't like anything about the Jenny Wren single. Not the main song, or any of the B-sides. Well, I do like the duduk, but that's it.

 

Was Jenny Wren a UK only single? I never heard it even once here in the US.
Good song, but I would never have considered it to be single material. I'm surprised it was a top 40 hit in the UK.

 

Jenny Wren wasn't bad, but it was the B-side that was absolutely awesome!

This Loving Game is one of McCartney's hidden gems!

I absolutely love the song, I play it all the time! I don't see how it wasn't on Chaos?!

It would have been way way better than English Tea which sounds like a song for children?

 

"Jenny Wren" is a good storyteller song. It's a nice break from other more inward emotional songs on "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard". It's not my pick of single if I could choose.

 

This Loving Game is better than Jenny Wrenn in my opinion, both are great songs

 

If it's for that then Paul shouldn't have issued any singles since the 2000's...

Ballads can work as singles as well.

 

I had never heard This Loving Game. Not about it. WHat a great song, I just loved it.

 

Yawn...wake me up where we're done with the Chaos And Creation singles

 

No, but personally, they don't embarrass me at all. 'Salamander' is just Paul being playful and quirky with words - as he often is - and living near London (as I do), ''I acted like a dustbin lid'' was always Cockney rhyme for "I acted like like a little kid", so that line never bothered me either.

 

I especially like “I Want You to Fly“.

 

Jenny Wren:

Another of my favourite McCartney singles. Beautifully produced by Nigel Godrich and absolute quality performance from start to finish.

 

I liked the album so much when it came out I made cdr copies for all my friends. I was a Chaos And Creation pusher

 

Jenny Wren is such a beautiful acoustic song! A highlight of CACITB imo.

 

I LOVE LOVE LOVE "Jenny Wren." What an incredible performance! His vocal. His guitar playing. Whatever that weird instrument was! Great songwriting too. I think it has to be one of his best moments in the last 20 years easily.